Field Hockey

Carolan Norris Named to New Agenda: Northeast Women's Hall of Fame

Nov 02, 2011

Providence, Rhode Island - Brown University Associate Athletic Director and former head field hockey coach Carolan Norris has been named to the New Agenda: Northeast Women's Hall of Fame. The 2011 New Agenda: Northeast Women's Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held at the Woodland Golf Club in Newton, MA on Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 12:30 p.m.

New Agenda: Northeast was founded to provide an opportunity for women in sports to gather annually to determine the future direction for women's sport and fitness in America and to develop a plan for the future of women's sport.

Hall of Fame honorees are selected based on their lifetime contributions to women's athletics as well as their outreach to the community.

In her role as an Associate Athletic Director, Norris supervises 12 head coaches and the strength and conditioning area, oversees the training and mentoring programs for coaches, leads Brown's diversity initiative, and acts as chief advisor for non-academic student-athlete issues. Norris also provides additional support in the area of compliance.

Norris joined the Brown athletic department in 1983 as an assistant field hockey coach and continued in that role for 10 years before assuming head lacrosse coaching duties on a full-time basis. After completing a successful six years with lacrosse, in which she boasted five winning seasons, Norris took over the field hockey program in the fall of 1998, coaching her teams to five winning seasons and the 1999 Ivy League Championship. Her nine-year record as the head coach of the field hockey team was 125-107.

Her 1999 field hockey squad shattered the school season records for goals, most wins, individual goals, individual assists, and individual points. Her squad earned national acclaim when it broke into the college field hockey rankings for the first time since the early 1990's, appearing as high as #14, and the Bears clinched their first Ivy crown since 1991. At the end of the season, Norris was rewarded when her peers voted her the Northeast Field Hockey Coaches Association Northeast Region Coach of the Year.

A native of Wakefield, RI, Norris graduated from South Kingstown High School, where she was an All-State field hockey and volleyball player. She went on to receive her bachelor of science from the University of Connecticut in 1983, where she was a four-year letterwinner in field hockey, ice hockey, and lacrosse. She played on the 1981 Husky field hockey team that won an NCAA National Championship and she captained the 1982 squad that was the NCAA Tournament Runner-up.